The look hasn't exactly gone mainstream yet, but apparently enough men are interested in svelte-ifying and staying warm that demand has increased, and hosiery specialist Emilio Cavallini tells WWD that his recently-launched just for dudes line is doing pretty well. "A growing number of men have been buying tights at emiliocavallini.com since a unisex collection was introduced in June 2009, said Cavallini. Purchases by men account for 2 to 3 percent of the company's annual production of one million tights," reports the paper.

So just how did "mantyhose" come to be a Cavallini specialty? "When we started our online shop we noticed that a lot of tights sized medium-large were being purchased by men.…So I did a search on the Internet and discovered there is a cult following for mantyhose...we came up with the concept of creating tights that both men and women could wear." Basic black is their best seller, and he says most men wear them under pants for warmth, or with shorts to make a fashion statement. And of course, there are some wild patterns available for the more adventurous (check out the his-and-hers pairs from his site above).